Ernie Els expects there will be individual challenges to the R&A and USGA’s anchoring ban but believes the PGA Tour will “have to play ball”.
Els is among the highest-profile players to have adopted an anchored stroke in his case a belly putter and admits he probably would not have won last year’s Open using any other implement on the greens.
However, the South African, returning to his former home of Wentworth for the BMW PGA Championship this week, is preparing to return to a shorter putter or perhaps to one of the new flatsticks being developed by equipment companies in response to the ban.
“There was a lot said in the three-month period by everybody, but in the end they’ve made the decision and you’ve got to go with the governing bodies,” he said. “They are looking after the interests of the game in the long run.
“I don’t want to speak for (PGA Tour commissioner) Tim Finchem and the Tour’s Player Advisory Board, but they’re probably going to have to play ball somehow.”
Els’s fellow South African Tim Clark, who claims to be physically unable to putt without anchoring, has already indicated he and others are examining legal options, and Els expects them to take action.
“I think you’re going to have some guys who go that way,” he said. “For me, I won 64 events with the short putter, and I won one with the belly putter, so I can get back to where I was, but it’ll take time.
“I’ve been practising with it a little. I played one event in Asia with it this year, and I probably won’t put a short one in the bag until after the majors this season.
“But I don’t think I would have won at Lytham without the belly putter. I was in such a state on the greens, it was a psychological thing.
“Even then I wasn’t putting that great. I was in the bottom 10 of putting stats at Lytham.
“I’m in a much better place now and feel I can get back to the short putter in the near future.”
Els has not been back to Murifield the scene of his first Open win in 2002 to check out the course changes yet ahead of his “double-defence”, but believes that it happily “all worked out” for him and Adam Scott.
“It worked out nicely I thought,” he joked. “Me getting a bit of a gift from Scotty, and then him winning his first major at Augusta.”
He has still to commit to the Scottish Open at Castle Stuart this year, with it looking likely that he will miss the event.
“My schedule is quite busy. I’ve been all over the world,” he said. “Gone to Asia and the Middle East twice. We’ll see how we feel. I’d love to go because I love it up there and the family enjoys it too.”